Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Luka leads Lakers over Nuggets 123-100

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

In what can be described as arguably the biggest win of the season, the Lakers went on the road and snapped the Nuggets' 9-game winning streak, crushing Denver. 123-100 Luka Doncic led Los Angeles with 32 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists, while LeBron James added 25, Austin Reeves added 23, and Rui Hachimura chipped in with 21. The Lakers will look to extend their winning ways Tuesday night as they host the DallasMavericks.Lakers, LA Lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Rui, Hachimura Austin Reeves, Dalton Knecht, NBA, Lakers Post cast, JJ Redick, Dave Palet, Lakers vs Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers vs Denver Nuggets Support Us, By Supporting Our Sponsors!FAN DUEL• When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started—and there’s no better place to get in on it than FanDuel, America’s Number ONE Sportsbook!• TRANSITION:• With FanDuel, you can place live bets throughout the game, so even if you miss the opening tip-off or want to bet on a fourth-quarter comeback, you can stay in the action. And if you’re looking for a bigger payout, you can even combine your live bets into a Same Game Parlay.• Example: I love using FanDuel’s live betting feature because it keeps every moment of the game exciting. Whether I’m backing my team for a late-game rally or picking a player to hit a clutch three, I never feel like I missed my chance. Plus, the app is easy to use, and when you win, you get paid instantly!• Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! Just visit FANDUEL DOT COM to join today. That’s FANDUEL DOT COM for your shot at ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets.• Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA.DOOR DASH• NBA fans, get ready— They Swoosh, You Save: Thanks to DashPass, every time a player drops 50 or more points in a game, you score a huge deal the next day.• It’s simple: When any player scores 50 or more in a game during the 24/25 NBA regular season, DashPass members get 50% off an order—up to $10 off—the next day from noon to midnight.• Here are a few ways you can take advantage of this deal:• · Game-Day Feast: After an epic 50-point performance, celebrate by ordering wings, pizza, or burgers from your favorite spot—delivered straight to your door.• · Late-Night Cravings: Whether you're staying up watching highlights or just need a midnight snack, use DashPass to grab something delicious while saving big.• · Lunch on the Go: Need a quick and easy lunch the next day? With DashPass, you get your favorite meals with $0 delivery fees and reduced service fees—plus, now you save even more with this exclusive NBA offer!• · Fueling Your Watch Party: Planning to catch the next game? Order your go-to snacks and meals at a discount and get ready for more high-scoring action.• Sign up for DashPass and be ready to save. When any player scores 50 or more in a game, DashPass members get 50% off an order the next day—up to $10 off. Just use promo code NBA50 from noon to midnight after a 50-point game on eligible orders at participating merchants. Must have an active DashPass account. Terms apply. Visit DoorDash to learn more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are a Locked-on Lakers podcast. Part of Locked-on Sports Los Angeles on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Baker score more than 20 points. Finally, Luca plays like Luca. And what's this the biggest win in the year? We talk about it all on the Locked-on Lakers Postcast. I'm Dave Palais.

Thank you so much for joining me tonight, as this was a huge Laker win. Lakers win 1-23-100. Want to mention the people over at Fandul when the game tips off. The NBA action is just getting started. And there's no better place to get in all the action with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, Fandul customers can get $150 in bonus bets. If your first $5 bet wins, just visit fandul.com to join today.

That's Fandual.com, your shot at $150 in bonus bets. All right, Los Angeles, Lakers, big win. Again, 123100. My name is Dave Pallet. You can follow me on social media at Dave Pallet. It's right there in the corner of the screen. and again, been covering this Laker team for a long time. So very excited to see where we're at.

Again, we'll take your comments tonight and talk about what the Lakers did, not only in Denver, but what it looks like for the future as well. Again, if it's a first time joining the show, again, this show and all the shows on Locked on Los Angeles, locked on Lakers, Locked on Lakers,

locked on Laker postcast. Right here, it can be heard on anywhere you get your podcast. At the same time, also available on YouTube, wherever you want to find all the action. Again, Brian and Andy, they cover the Lakers every single day. So if you want to follow Brian and Andy and find more Laker talk, they're available for you as well. But I'm here just again for the postcast.

And so I'm happy to be here. Again, looking forward to your comments and thank you guys for sitting with me through the entire season. But I've said before, I go, here's the deal. Man, I'm a diehard Laker fan. I've been a Laker fan since Magic Johnson's rookie year. First Laker game I ever saw was Magic Johnson's, believe or not, NBA Finals, championship games.

against the Philadelphia 76ers. Believe or not, if you aren't as old as me, that was back in the day what was taped delayed. And so I'm watching Dr. Jay and I'm watching Magic Johnson. I'm watching Magic Johnson this rookie, and I was hooked. And I've been a Laker fan ever since. Love the Showtime Lakers, but I was lucky enough to start covering the team. Right around the time, Magic retired in the early 90s

and was lucky enough to watch this team make a run with Kobe and Shaq and be with those guys for 10 years, not only at the games, but getting a chance to talk to those guys before and after games. And it was a dream come true. So here we are. We're looking at the Lakers, which has always been a franchise of Star Power. When we mentioned some of your favorites,

whether it's Kobe, whether it's Gassal, whether it's LeBron James, now we have Luca. And the Lakers go out and they make this trade for Luca about three weeks ago. I think it was three weeks ago tonight. It was right after the Knicks game. And I remember we did the show. It was a big win for the Lakers against the Knicks.

And we sign off. And all of a sudden of my phone rang. and it's my son who says, you won't believe who the Lakers got. And I said, I don't know, I'm going to go, Chris Paul. Finally, Chris Paul comes to the Lakers. He goes bigger than Chris Paul. And I said, okay, Kevin Durant,

he goes bigger than Durant. And now I'm going, okay, he's not just playing games with me. This is something that's going to be big. And then I go, Yonis was my next guest. And I said, I have no idea. I go, but it's none of those guys, and you're saying bigger every time.

You know, not just think of your mess. with me. And he goes, Dad, it's Luca. Lucas coming to the Lakers. And I thought it was the craziest sounding thing of all time. Just couldn't believe it. And here we are. We're waiting for Luca and LeBron and we're looking forward to this. And we know that the team's not going to be great

defensively. And there's so many question marks, but it doesn't matter, it's Luca, that Lakers now they will have a star for the next 10 years. Because as much as we all might have loved Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis at best, probably has about three years left in him as far as premium in basketball because the history in this league is once you're over seven feet tall, you start breaking down around age 32, 33, and Anthony Davis is already 31.

And you're going, okay, Luca's here. Well, Luca hasn't looked like Luca. And, you know, as we talked about in the last show, kind of funny that he had the game he had tonight against the Denver Nuggets. And we're going to get in all that stuff as far as Luca and Austin Reeves and Ruiz and LeBron, we're going to get in all that stuff. But Luca finally looked like Luca because, look, six weeks he hadn't played. And it was a caffindry and you're going, okay, what's your win like?

Look, if none of us did anything for six weeks and we're now asked to basically play top, you know, NBA basketball running five miles a game, it would be pretty tough for us to stay in shape. And so pretty impressive with what Luca has become now. And I'm sure with him and LeBron and JJ Reddick, they'll all, everybody be patient. You don't know what it's like to be an NBA player. It's been frustrating. And especially when, you know, all of a sudden he sits out again in the game against the Portland. trailblazers, you're going, okay, is, is this guy going to be able to go? Is it going to be able to turn this on? So tonight was awesome. Tonight was awesome. And we're going to talk about it. Actually,

I want your comments. Was this the biggest win of the year for the Lakers? We've had some really big ones. We've had some big ones. The game against the Celtics was obviously a big, big win. The game against the New York Knicks before Luca joined the team was a big win. This game at Denver, I think arguably, my opinion is the biggest win in the season because Denver owns this team. And they've owned us for about three years now. And it's very frustrating because the Lakers have always dominated the Denver Nuggets. Yet they won't stop talking. The fans, the owner, the head coach, we talk about this all the time.

Like, man, I can't stand the Denver Nuggets because it's like, you guys forget all of history on what the Lakers are and what you guys are. We have all these banners, you guys have won. And you guys run your mouth like it's the other way around. So to go to Denver, national televised game and play the way they played was incredible. Absolutely incredible. And I was extremely excited about it. So when we look and see what the game looked like tonight, again, if you're looking at your starting five, I think went healthy.

This is your starting five. It's Jackson Hayes, it's Ruiz, Austin Reeves, LeBron James, and Luca. And I think Austin Reeves, not only did Luca have a big night, but I think Austin Reeves figured out a way that he's going to play his way into playing with these guys. You know, he has a really good on-court relationship with LeBron James. And I think it was a matter of now that Luke is here, where does he fit in? And I think Austin Reeves tonight showed that he can fit in with anybody. And I think it's going to work. I think this is going to work.

First quarter, Lakers jumped out to a 6-0 lead. Nuggets quickly tie the game up at 8. Then again, at 10, 4-57 remaining in the quarter. Luca took over with the basket in the lane. Then an assist from Dorian Finney Smith for three-pointer, long-distance three-pointer. for Luca and the Lakers all of a sudden are starting open things up. 2416 lead, forcing the Nuggets to call a timeout. At that point of the game, Lucas quarter assisted on 13 of the Lakers' first 24 points.

So we knew it felt different. It just looked different. He looked comfortable as well. 3.30 remaining in the first quarter, Lakers now leave 3118. Another Luca three-pointer on that. Two minutes remaining, Lakers are at 3521. Now, this shows you exactly how valuable Luke is. Luca leaves the game in the first quarter with a minute,

at 50 remaining. And the Lakers were up, again, you know, big. And then all of a sudden, they take a lead of 35, 22, a 13 point lead. Denver goes on a 93 run. And all of a sudden, then at the first quarter is obviously much closer than what they expected. Lakers win that quarter, 38, 31. What we talk about how the Lakers won to score at least 30 points per quarter, and they're able to get 38 in that one.

Unfortunately, they gave up 31 at the end. but having Luke out there was big. Luca led the Lakers in the first quarter, 16 points, four rebounds, four assists. Nuggets led by the Joker again, 7.6 rebounds, four assists. Very unusual game or as far as, of course, he gets the triple double, meaning the Joker,

but didn't shoot a lot. Almost didn't shoot to the point we wonder if something was wrong. Lakers made 48% of the shots in that quarter. Again, pretty good, 30% for three-point range, expect a little bit better. That's fine. rebounding. We're out rebounding the Nuggets, 14-11, which is big, considering we always talk about lack of size now on this team. Assists, 11 to 9 Lakers, bench points. Lakers had four, Nuggets had four, turnovers. Lakers had two. Nuggets had five.

Turnovers were big this entire game as far as the way things went. Second quarter, Lakers outscore the Nuggets by two, 25, 23 at the half. Lakers are leading in 63, 54. And just to recap real quick, 9, 10, 28, remaining in the half, Austin Reeves. lob pass LeBron James. I was a dunk to give the Lakers an 11-point lead. It's always fun when we see those. 239 remaining. Luke and LeBron on the court at the same time.

Luca finds LeBron for a breakaway layup. Give the Lakers a 55-46 lead. 209 remaining. LeBron James, three-pointed, give the Lakers a 58-46 lead. I always say it's time to start feeling comfortable, but it's never time to feel comfortable with this Laker team because we've seen things go bad.

122, Jamal Murray, he knocks down his second straight three-pointer, making the score 58-52, And just like that, we're going, okay, we've seen this before. It's just where the Nuggets make the run. And again, 23.7 seconds left. LeBron Dunk, Luca 3, Lakers hold a 63, 52 advantage. And eventually they go to the half. Lakers up, 63, 54.

Luke upset with the referees going into the half. As you saw, earns a technical foul. They have opened up the third quarter with the Nugget shooting a technical foul. But that's Luca. If you aren't aware, if you don't watch a ton of, of NBA games outside of the Lakers. Luca's going to do that. He's going to pull that move where Luca's going to sit there and get the team a little bit in trouble where he's

going to, he's going to basically run the mouth, complain a little bit. And we'll get into some of that as well. I don't think it's not, I don't think it's unjustified. I think Luca and LeBron don't get star treatment when it comes to referees, whereas you watch other guys in the league that seem to get star treatment all the time. So we'll get into all that stuff in a little bit. We'll look at some of the half-time stats. looking forward to some of your comments on what you guys think. First, I want to mention the people over at DoorDash. Look, here's the deal.

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Must have active dash pass account. Terms apply. Visit DoorDash to learn more. All right. So again, the Lakers play well in the first half. Can the Lakers take it into the third quarter? Can the Lakers continue on and keep the streak running? Or are the Nuggets going to make adjustments?

Or the Lakers going to get tired as we say athletes all the time in Denver. We never know what's going to happen with the wind, wind, I should say. So here, Lakers in the first half, they shoot 43%, 30% from three point range, 7 to 23. They make their free throws, which was big earlier in the week when a disappointing loss to the Hornets. They make 14 to 16, that's 88%. Nugget shot 43%, 37% from three-point range. Lakers will let at the half by Luca. Now, here's Luca's numbers at the half were insane.

In 16 minutes, only played 16 minutes in the first half, he had 19 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists. LeBron James, 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, Austin Reeves, 10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists. LeBron and Luca were responsible for 45 of the Lakers, 63 points. pretty incredible. Okay, so rebounds. Nuggets had the Lakers.

They caught them, obviously, in the second quarter. They ended up winning the half, 25, 21, assists. Lakers 16, Nuggets 15, pretty close. Bench points, Lakers 6, Nugget 7. All those seven were by Russell Westbrook. I'm sure you're like me. Every time Russell Westbrook scores, it kind of makes you sick. I love the fact that Lakers dare him to shoot three-pointers.

This time he was knocking them down tonight. But Russell Westbrook is one of the most frustrating Lakers in history. Turnovers. Lakers only had three nuggets at the half had 11. So turnover is way down. Solid for the Lakers. Point scored off turnovers. Lakers dominated. Just dominated all night long. So again, leading at the half, the Lakers are 28 and 5. You can now change that number. The Lakers are now 29 and 5 when leading at the half, which is a sign of a really good team. So very exciting to see what the Lakers were doing, not only offensively, as it's easy to pay attention to. If you're looking at a box score if you're just paying one of those guys that pays attention to the ball. But defensively, the Lakers did very well. And that was the talk, of course, this trade. It's great to have Luca, but defensively, is this team going to fall apart? And we've seen issues with the Lakers defense, especially whether it's rim protecting,

whether it's guys that are rotating. You would have thought it was the Lakers that had the nine-game winning streak because the Nuggets were red-hot before tonight. The Nuggets were the team that wasn't rotating. Yet the Lakers defense was outstanding tonight. And overall, I think JJ Reddick, that's one of the reasons he saw the smiles on his face. Not so much what they were doing offensively, but the Lakers were doing defensively was what was impressive tonight. The way the Lakers played tonight, they could play with anybody.

They could play with anybody. Moving on to the third quarter, both teams scored 33 points in the quarter. Look, the Nugget scored eight straight points to start the third. Made me a little bit nervous cut the lead down to one. At that point, it was 63, 62. Lakers responded with a 10-0 run, though, to make it 73, 62. The Lakers opened up to 9684, the minute remaining. But the highlight of the quarter was Rui, 12 points, made four three-pointers in the quarter.

And so for Rui to get hot and hold his own is big. And he saw the stat if you watched the game on television and weren't listening on the radio. But, you know, Ruiz, since Anthony Davis has been traded, his numbers have gone up. And I think every player says, hey, it stinks to lose really one of the best players in the league. And a guy who's a great defensive player. but I know offensively my numbers are going to go up and that's exactly what's happening with some of these Lakers. So in the fourth quarter before things got completely out of hand,

this is how it happened. 9.59 remaining in the game. The score was 9889. Rui left to the locker room with a back injury. At first we weren't sure if it was a side injury, back injury, what was going on. And going, oh, no, you know, not only does he grab immediately his back, but he leaves.

Whenever you see a guy leave, not just the bench, but go down the hallway, makes you a little bit nervous of what's going to happen. and 849 gave Vincent's three-pointer, made the score 103-89, feeling pretty good. 731 remaining. Again, it was the Lakers now up by 17 on Goodwin's Corner 3 and 6.59. Lakers go up by 19.

And at this point, we're feeling pretty comfortable. Six minutes remaining, good news for the Lakers. Rui re-enters the game. So shows that he should be available Tuesday night when they face the Dallas Mavericks unless, you know, the spasm. You don't know what's going to happen on an airplane, but we're hoping Ruiz is going to be ready to go in about 48 hours. And with four minutes remaining, the game's over.

The four minutes remaining, the Nuggets were the first team to throw the towel in. They empty the bench, let in the scrubs play. And then about 30 seconds later, JJ Redick did the same thing. And then all of a sudden, next to you know, the Nuggets nine-game winning streak, it's out the window. And the Lakers are sitting there smiling excited to get back on that plane to Los Angeles. Well, they'll face the Dallas Mavericks 7 o'clock tip off from crypto. So things have gone the Lakers way. and they played extremely well and it was extremely exciting to see what the Lakers did.

For me, I think it's the win of the year. It's the win of the year and curious to know what you think as well. So we'll look at some of your comments right here. But overall, man, I'm on cloud nine tonight. You know, what a difference exactly is what happened. So Craig, good to see you. I was good to you first. And Craig, what a difference Luca makes?

You know, Luca look like Luca. And I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing. You know, this is what I am. This is who I am. He's not some guy that has to prove himself to anybody. I mean, he's been in the league a while, and he's already considered one of the best players to ever be in the NBA. And so for Laker fans, we're like, okay, I don't think, I don't know, I haven't run into a Laker fan that has told me that Lakers made a mistake on this trade. Not that at all.

You just want to see Luka play the way he played with the Dallas Mavericks. And tonight you saw it. You absolutely saw it. So Luka was great. Craig defense was great. Absolutely. And proof says, can you imagine trading a Luca? Look at those people in Dallas, how upset they are.

If you remember, it was about three, three and a half weeks ago where there's all that talk that, you know, LeBron was going to be traded to the Golden State Warriors. And I was really upset saying, enough of that. I go, why don't we get the superstar? Like, why are we talking about making the Warriors better? You know, what's going on? I was all over Rob Polinka, very upset saying, we are not training our superstars. This is the Lakers.

We bring superstars here. And sure enough, he brings the second biggest star in the NBA to Los Angeles. Outside of the Joker, it doesn't get bigger than Luca. So that was incredible. I think the best is yet to come. I think these guys will figure out a way to play with each other even better. And I think you're going to see some incredible games, not only highlights, but the total points they're putting on the board.

If they can play defense like they did tonight and the offense continues to get better, you're looking at a team that should contend for a championship. And when I watch the national people talk today, whether it's the halftime guys, you know, whether it's Perk, whether it's Stephen A. Smith, whether it's Doris Burke, whether it's the guys that you know aren't watching Laker basketball every single night like you are, and they're sitting there talking about what they're seeing

and they can't believe what they're seeing, they know the Lakers are a team to contend with. Watch how all of a sudden, after tonight's game, you're going to hear the national NBA guys talk more about the Lakers and how, hey, watch out for the Lakers coming out of the West and possibly match up with a team like the Boston Celtics, who most people think, even though the Cavs have the number one seed

that people are saying, watch the Lakers match up with the Boston Celtics. So it is, it is extremely exciting. Craig says, yes, it is the biggest one of the year. Man, I am with you on that. Luca LeBron, the chemistry is already there. It looks pretty good. Love what I'm seeing right now out of these guys.

It is fun to watch. Again, I don't know what it's going to look like when it's basically all polished, but we knew what it looked like when we've seen great players before play together. When it was Kobe and it was Gasol, when it was Kobe and it was Shaq, when it was Magic, worthy, Kareem. Michael Cooper, all those guys in the 80s, man, when you have great players on the court at the same time that understand the game, know where to be, know the spacing is incredible. One thing I noticed about Luca tonight, by the way, is, and I was looking at people in the crowd

or are calling them, you know, they're calling them fat and they're yelling horrible things at them, whatever, they're on the road. But, man, when you sit and you watch Luca and you pay attention to him away from the ball, man, he moves very well away from the ball and knows where to be. It's amazing, you know, here's the guy that's supposed to be out of shape, gets a ton of rebate, bounds does it every single game. He knows where to be. Does a great job. His basketball IQ is absolutely through the roof. Daniel, very happy Sunday, Saturday to you and I appreciate it. But statement win, Daniel says, Daniel, I agree with you, man, it was. B.C. Go Lakers, always it can count

on that for you. Luca plus LeBc. says equals a championship. Guys, I'm all in. You know, this was a huge win. E. Ash says such a huge win and couldn't agree more. Could not agree more. This was a huge one. I think this was the win in the year. So far up to this point, I think the best has yet to come. But right now, I would say this is the one in the year. We'll talk more about Lakers.

Just give me one minute and we'll mention our good friends over at Fandul. Don't forget, fan duel. Look, here's the deal. Man, if you're sitting there and you're watching the game tonight and you're thinking, is it a great time to put something on it? Look, when the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started. There's no better place to get in and all the action on a fan duel. America's number one sports book.

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If your first $5 bet wins, just visit Fandall.com to join today. That's fandle. For your shot at $150 on bonus bets, make every moment more with Fandall, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right. So again, as we said before, this is big for the Lakers, all right? And big for us as fans and all of a sudden a little bit of excitement. As I said, When nights like this go this way, I go to bed thinking about the Lakers, and I wake up thinking about the Lakers and I'm going, man, what a great night. Like I almost wish like they played it played the next day, kind of like in baseball. We get a chance to do it again tomorrow.

But Lakers will have a chance to get a couple days off to get on the plane, going back from Denver to L.A., and then the Lakers will host the Dallas Mavericks. Anthony Davis obviously will not be playing in that game, but that is a game for Maverick fans that are going to sit there and they're going to sit and go, this is why we didn't want you to trade Luca. This is where these guys are going to have a tough time watching Luca do their thing against the Dallas Mavericks. I can't imagine what that must be like.

I mean, when Shaq Majors return to face Kobe Bryant, do you guys remember that, the Miami Heat and the Lakers and the Christmas Day thing and how uncomfortable it was? For the Lakers, at least we had Kobe. And we understood there was a conflict. And I think most Laker fans, maybe at the time might have picked one over the other, might have said I would rather have kept Shaq than said of Kobe.

But for me, as a guy who covered the team back in the day, look, here's the deal. I understood Kobe's frustration. I was a huge Shaq fan. And this is the way it would work. When I walked into the forum at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, there were only two people there before me every single time I walked into the form, two o'clock in the afternoon back then.

It was Chick-Hern, who would sit one row in front of me, two roads in front of me, I should say, because the stats guys were right behind him. Then it would be me. And then on the court was Kobe Bryant. And I heard that was Kobe Bryant's third workout of the day. And Kobe would be there at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. And Kobe'd be working on his game and working on his game.

And it never changed throughout his career. And then Shaq would show up around 6 o'clock, maybe 6.30. And you never saw Shaq go in early and, you know, work on his free throws, which drove us all crazy. But Kobe was always the guy that was working and put the time in. And then the offense always had to run through Shaq. you understood the frustration level. And after years of it of going, this guy looks like he's not in the best shape.

I'm a guy that works at my craft nonstop. And I still got to sit there and basically kneel to him and say the offense is going to run through him, even though he's not putting the work in that I'm putting in. You understood the frustration and why it worked out that way. So for me, when they decided to deal Shaq and keep Kobe, it made all the sense in the world to me that Kobe was the guy that they would keep. And I don't think Laker fans today would say the Lakers made a mistake at all. You know, Lakers one-on-one, two more championships without Jack.

And Kobe was a guy that a lot of people consider, as much as I love Magic Johnson. Kobe's the greatest Laker of all time. Greatest Laker of all time. So here's the deal. For the Mavericks, they're in a situation where not only is Anthony Davis not playing, but they have to watch Luca go out and do their thing right in front of their face, wearing a different uniform. It's going to make them sick.

It's going to be great. And I can expect, like, you do whatever you want. They're over-unders and your parlays. Man, Luca's going to have a heck of a game on Tuesday. It is going to be the Lucas show, and I'm sure LeBron and everyone else is going to do what they can to make sure Dallas knows that, hey, we're going to make it hurt a little bit more, that you got rid of one of the best players that might go down in the history of the league as one of the biggest fleece jobs of all time. You can put it right up there. If you're a Boston Red Sox fan, how sick you are watching Mookie Betts in a Dodger uniform, guess what? We did it to Dallas.

We did it to Boston and we did it to Dallas. I cannot wait. uncanny says Tuesday is going to be wild. It's going to be wild. It's going to be something else. Look, I wish nothing but the best for Anthony Davis, and I'm sorry, he's not healthy enough to play. But in reality, don't care about the Dallas Mavericks.

Right now, every team's the enemy. I like one team. It's the Lakers and all 29 teams they can pound sand. Don't care about any of them. I'm all about the Lakers, and that's what matters most. There's a level of hatred I have towards certain ones. Celtics are at the top. Denver Nuggets right there are number two for me right now.

the way the Denver Nuggets talk and the way the Denver Nuggets have basically outplayed the Lakers for a number of years, it has been extremely frustrating. So I'll run through the box score for you real quick to give you an idea in case you haven't paid attention to what happened tonight. Four guys scored over 20 points for the Lakers tonight. That's big. Whenever a coach gets that sheet of paper when you're standing in the hallway with a coach and somebody walks by and they hand them the box score in their hand, the first thing the coach looks at is how many guys win in double digits. means that they were sharing the ball. And so for the Lakers, they had four guys that went over 20.

Forget about the double digits. Your four were Luca led the team with 32 points. He had 10 rebounds, seven assists. LeBron James, 25 points, 9 rebounds, five assists. Austin Reeves, 23 points, seven assists, four rebounds. And Ruiz, as we mentioned, just an incredible third quarter. Rui had 21 points. He had four assists.

Now, here's the frustrating thing I'll say about Rui, and this is where I want to be. want more. And if you follow this show on a regular basis, you know it's my same complaint. Rui has to do a better job on the boards. He has to do a little more. Defensively, not terrible, but man, you got to grab a rebound. He had zero rebounds tonight. So you play 36 minutes and not, you didn't get one rebound? Like, how does that happen? You know, that, that becomes a little bit frustrating. Bench points wasn't a crazy, you know, day for the bench, but we saw some good things. Jordan Goodwin, it meant it's fun. It hit a great three-pointer when we needed it. Daltor Connect. He had

four points tonight. You know, wasn't able to knock down threes, but only played nine minutes. And for the, for the Lakers overall, it was big. Jackson Hayes, you know what? He did what he needed to do. Jackson Hays, again, efforts always there with Jackson, 25 points, four points. We weren't looking at them for points. We're looking at them, though, not to make mistakes.

Defensively was, was exactly what I wanted. Jared Vanderbilt, just in the six minutes, he played, boy, did it feel like he played a lot more than six minutes. I mean, he was involved in a lot of things. and for the nuggets. Aaron Gordon led them in scoring with 24. Russell Westbrook, 17 off the bench and 24 minutes for him. But you know what?

We won the game. Jamal Murray had 19 points. And the Joker again got his triple double. It was 12 points, 10 assists, 13 rebounds. He only shot the ball seven times. Seven times and he only made two of those seven shots. His eight points after that were just free throws. So for the Lakers, an outstanding job.

And I don't know if you guys were thinking or what I'm thinking about what's the best way to stop the Joker. The defensive plan for the Joker was great. I loved what the Lakers did. But I also liked a lot when you had a LeBron James on him, which I think was probably surprising to him. But at the same time, he's probably the strongest guy on the court to help with that big body of his, to have LeBron James. And he understands leverage. He understands, look, he's not as tall. He doesn't weigh as much.

But LeBron James is probably the best guy. Now, can they do that same thing against the Joker in a seven-greens? game series in the playoffs. I don't know. Will it take too much out of LeBron or some of the other guys? I don't exactly know how that would work, but all I know is they're able to go to Denver tonight, and there are a ton of Laker fans there in the arena, cheering them on. You could hear them. You could hear the excitement, you know, which is great, the Laker Nation all over the place. So for me, absolutely loved what I saw. And again, I wish they played sooner than Tuesday because you want to keep it going. You know, as frustrated as I was with the losses to the Jazz and the Hornets,

This was awesome. So if you're wondering where things are at right now in the Western Conference standings, before we get out of here for the night, Oklahoma City is still playing very good basketball, one eight or the last 10. I can't worry about Oklahoma City. They're so far ahead right now. They have an eight and a half game lead. Grizzlies, again, are the second seed.

Denver is the third seed right now. They're nine games back. Houston Rockets will fall into the four seed. And the Lakers are a half game back in the fifth seat. So the Lakers are 3421 on the season and their 11 game is back. we're going to pass the Houstoner Rockets. Lakers are going to get to where I want to be, and that's going to be in the top four spots.

It's going to work out for the Lakers. But the schedule is going to get tough. And at the same time, you have teams coming up on that schedule that you wonder, how are they playing? And can the Lakers do anything? Look, this Dallas Mavericks team, they're the eighth seed right now.

They won three straight games. Man, they're running on fumes. And I expect the Dallas Mavericks will come back down to Earth pretty soon. I know the Lakers have a game against Minnesota coming up. Minnesota's now been struggling as well. is five and five in their last 10 games. The Lakers need to play their best basketball, obviously heading into April as the season will come to an end

before the postseason starts. But look, here's the deal. I'll be back on Tuesday after that game against the Dallas Mavericks. I hope you guys join me for the show and talk more Laker basketball, hopefully after a great Laker win. But Tuesday is going to be crazy. It's going to be crazy. Mavericks Lakers is going to be the story in sports that everybody's talking about,

and we're going to be here for. So again, follow me on social media if you can. name again, Dave Palais. It's in the corner of your screen. At the same time, more Laker Talk. You can follow Brian and Andy every single day, locked on Lakers, locked on Lakers, locked on Laker talk, locked on Los Angeles, and YouTube as well. So anywhere you get your podcast, make sure you find locked on Los Angeles, locked on Lakers, and you're going to get everything you need every single day. But I will see everybody on Tuesday, hopefully after another big Laker win. Let's keep that winning street going. Again, thank you so much for joining me.

Lakers win tonight, 123, 100. Have a great Saturday night, everybody.